Are my kids the only ones who were frightened by ‘Up’?

The dogs are what set off my kids. The fierce-looking Doberman pinscher, Alpha, and his pack. As soon as they revealed their sharp canine teeth and started charging through the jungle in search of the rare, tropical bird, Kevin, my 6-year-old daughter hopped into the lap of her friend sitting next to her. My 4-year-old trembled in my arms crying out, “I want to go home, Mommy!”

On Saturday, I took my kids and their 11-year-old friend to see Pixar’s new film Up (read The Chroniclereview) at the Castro theater in San Francisco. I was so desperate for a mellow outing that I didn’t even check the reviews ahead of time to see if the movie was deemed appropriate for little ones. I longed to sit for an hour and a half, munching on popcorn and sipping diet coke. A friend whose husband works at Pixar had brought her 6-year-old to a screening and her daughter loved the film, so I figured my kids would be fine. That certainly wasn’t the case.

The show was relaxing for the first 40 minutes, but I spent the remaining part actively consoling my children through the chase scenes that dominate the second half of the film. Both of my kids ended up sitting in my lap–while I helped them cover their ears to block out “scary” sounds. When they both stuck their heads under my shirt and eating popcorn became impossible, I gave up and took them to the lobby, leaving their friend alone. My son was sobbing and scolding me, “You took us to a movie that’s not appropriate for kids!” (Yes, I taught him the word appropriate, which he says with a stutter). My daughter told me the dogs were “too scary.”

If only I had done my homework. My kids were both knocked over by a dog a few weeks ago and my son was bitten on the back. My daughter, who has always been fearful of dogs, was especially traumatized by the incident and has had a few canine nightmares. In her book, the bad guys are dogs and this movie brought her thinking alive.

We hopped back into the theater at the end of the film and saw that the menacing dogs had turned friendly. “I still think they’re scary,” my daughter said.